By Your Side
by aweepingdalek
Summary: "I see yellows and browns and pinks and blues globbing together until I notice that I'm crying. I know she won't make it. She's so small. An easy target. She'll be the first to go." -Spoilers for Catching Fire & Mockingjay. R&R appreciated. x
1. Reaping Day

The moment the name tumbles from Effie Trinket's mouth, I'm in shock. Primrose Everdeen. My mouth falls open. I can't move, I can't speak. I barely know how to breathe. All I can think is, _Not her. Why her?_ Innocent Primrose, saving lives left and right even as hers is coming to an end. I call her name finally, and she looks back to meet my gaze. Fear. That's all I see. Her back is straight and her lips pursed, but her eyes scream what she won't. My view is clouded and I'm wondering why my vision is swimming. I see yellows and browns and pinks and blues lobbing together until I notice that I'm crying. I know she won't make it. She's so small. An easy target. She'll be the first to go.

"Prim!" I call out again as she turns back swiftly and stalks to the stage. Stalks to her inevitable death. I'm shoving my way through the rest of the fifteen year olds, and spill out into the aisle separating each age group. I try to run to her, but the Peacekeepers smack their shoulders together so I'm blocked. They shove me back, and I can't help it when my fist zooms toward his face. It's stupid, I know. But what have I got to lose?

Just then, I hear another voice as I'm shoved painfully back into the boys in my year. I strain to hear, as the voice sounds strangled and hoarse. "I VOLUNTEER! I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!" A gasp shudders through the crowd and that's when I know who it is. Katniss Everdeen. Prim's sister. I can't help but feel thankful, even though I know how bad this will hurt her. I know how much she loves her sister; I even know that they would die for each other. It pains me when she hurts, but when I see my brother tossing her over his shoulder as she sobs, I'm glad. Glad that she's being taken far away from here.

Then I see Gale's face. It's blank, unreadable to people who don't know him like I do. Prim's the most important thing in Katniss' life and he'll save her. I will save her. But he's heartbroken, I know. Gale is in love with Katniss Everdeen. He saves his only days away from the mines for her; Sundays. When our bedroom door is closed and Vick is asleep, he speaks through the bunk bed and tells me what they did that day. He could go on forever listing off reasons why he's so in love with her. Maybe it's in our genes that our love is unrequited. Even though he can confide in me, he doesn't know my secret. For two years, I have been in love with Primrose Everdeen.


	2. The Justice Building

When the boy tribute is being announced, I'm hoping it's not me. Prim needs me now, and her name was in that ball once. My name is in there five times, and I don't even take tesserae. Gale won't allow it. I take a deep and drawing breath as Effie Trinket squeaks out the name in her thick, weird Capitol accent that I can hardly understand. "And the male tribute for the seventy-fourth Hunger Games is . . . Peeta Mellark! Come on, boy, up, up, up you go!" Hardly anyone gasps, but a few trickle through.

He may be from the Merchant and he may have it better than most of us, he's still a member of our District and we know he's going to lose. I know Katniss is going to lose too. She may be able to shoot a squirrel in the eye from a mile away, but she doesn't stand a chance against the Careers in the Arena. They've had years of illegal training and she's had next to none. Nobody wins in District 12 and that's a fact. Our only tribute survived in only a last thread of luck at the very last moment, and look at how he turned out. He lays unconscious face-first on the ground in front of the stage with half of his smashed liquor bottle still clutched in his hand.

After Katniss and Peeta shake hands, they turn back to face us. Katniss has put on a mask—a mask she wears often—but it's weaker now. I see the look of desperation clouding her eyes, the tightness of her fists by her sides. She's convinced she'll die in the arena, but she needs to stay strong for Prim. We all do. Peeta stands on the other side of the pale, pink poufy-wigged announcer and I know he's not even trying to stay strong for the crowd. His head is slightly bowed and his slick hair is falling away from its designated place and the muscle in his cheek works as he stares out into the crowd.

Effie Trinket lifts their arms above their heads and happily cheers, "Our tributes of District 12!" Her voice booms throughout the square but it's absolutely quiet besides the sound of sniffling and softer sobs that must be coming from Prim. The look of devastation is evident on all of our faces as we lift three fingers to our lips and offer them to our tributes. Katniss' mouth falls open slightly and Peeta looks like he's just about to start crying, but he doesn't. He's kept at least that much composure.

* * *

After the crowd has dispersed, my family and Katniss' and Peeta's stand in two separate lines just outside the Justice Building. Strangely enough, a middle-aged man with blond hair stands beside Mrs. Everdeen, who must be Peeta's father, and only a short and plumper woman with a grimacing face stands alone on the side that leads to where Peeta is being kept. This is when we say our goodbyes. I stand beside Prim as she still cries softly into my shoulder. I put my arms around her and rub her back with one hand. "She'll be okay. You know how Katniss is. She's brave and she's a really good hunter. She'll make it," I reassure her, but I'm doubting myself. I don't think she stands a chance.

I want to accompany them inside to give Prim the support she needs to not break down again, but I feel like Katniss would appreciate it much more if it were just her family. We're close enough to be family, but only just. I look down at my shoes as I feel Posy staring at me. I'm scraping the coal dust off my horrid excuse for boots when I hear her little voice pipe up. "Rawy, Posy no like when you sad." That makes a small smile ghost onto my lips and I look over to see her clutched in my mother's arms. I walk over to her when she holds her arms out to me and I take her into mine. "Peas, Rory isn't sad." I poke her nose when I see her frowning with her big cheeks and puffy lips. "So you don't be sad either." Satisfied, I set her on the ground where she stumbles over to pester Vick.

"Gale," I say when I see him hanging his head and squeezing his eyes shut. He doesn't respond. He's just shaking his head and the same muscle that I saw working in Peeta's mouth is now the same for Gale. I lean one shoulder against the wall and continue to watch him. "Do you think she'll win?" That gets his attention. His head snaps up to look at me and I can see the sadness and fear and love so clear on his face. He hardly ever shows his true colors to us, but now was one of those times that he just couldn't keep his walls up. These Games, this Nation; it was all getting too much for him. So hard that now his walls are caving in and he doesn't have enough nails to keep it upright. It has already broken him.

Gale's mouth is a thin white line and he gulps visibly. "I don't know," he says finally. "She's stronger than they are and she knows how to hunt. The odds could be in her favor. I just know she won't go down without a fight." Weakly, he runs a hand through his hair and turns away from me, anticipating in agony his turn to say his goodbyes. "I'll be rooting for her. She could do it," I say.

* * *

Soon enough, Prim is being dragged from the Justice Building with her mother stalking quietly behind. I yell at them to let her go and they deposit her roughly onto the ground. I curse at them, but they don't pay me any mind. Just doing their job. Just trying to break us. But it won't work. I'm sick and tired of them pushing us around like this. My blood boils and I clench my teeth as I lift Prim from the ground and she nearly strangles me in a hug. It takes all of my strength to make her release her grip around my throat.

"She's going to make it. She promised, and Katniss never breaks her promises," Prim says over and over again that now it had seemed to become a sort of mantra for her.

* * *

Gale is pulled from the building as well and he's fighting the Peacekeepers' firm grip on his arms. Eventually he screams that he's had enough and shakes them free, stalking straight past our stunned faces and heading right into the Woods. His gray eyes look troubled and his fists are clenched so tightly at his sides, his knuckles are white. I call after him but it's no use. When Gale wants to talk, he'll talk. But I have a feeling he won't be talking for a long time.


	3. Flaming Eleven

Over the course of the next few days, Prim grows more independent, waving off my attempts to make her open up. She even works longer hours than her mother does, saving up to seven lives a day. I'm impressed, but she's going without much sleep. I'm convinced that until Katniss appears on our screen, she won't get any at all.

"I can't even hug you? What if you need a hug?" I ask. "A hug can turn your day around." I add, hopefully.

"I don't want any hugs," she says firmly before the sound of the Panem National Anthem begins booming throughout the Square. Immediately we both whip our heads to stare at each other for a moment, and the next we're running into the Square just in time for Caesar Flickerman, the announcer and interviewer for the past few years to announce the beginning of the Chariots.

The scene cuts to District 1 wearing an interesting Gladiator sort of costume that I can't quite figure out the meaning of and its relevance to their district. The next ten chariots go by in a blur, when my eye catches on District 11. My breath catches in my throat and I feel a wave of pity wash over me. A petite, dark skinned girl with a simple twig-and-leave crown smiles for the crowd. She looks to be around the same age as Prim which makes me cringe. Her name is Rue. Well, Rue, you stand as much of a chance at winning as Prim would have. I raise three fingers to my lips and hold them out to the screen, but I'm the only one. I don't care.

This girl looks so innocent, and Panem just grabs her up with its dirty, disgusting hands and strips all of that away from her, tosses her into a place where her death is inevitable. And it's all for show. They don't take our feelings into account. We don't even have a say. But I'm willing to do what it takes to change that.

Then the scene is cut to District 12 and the crowd is _ooh_'ing and _ahh_'ing. Katniss Everdeen, the Girl on Fire. Literally, _on fire_. Prim gasps beside me and her hand finds mine, digging her nails into the back of my hand. "They can't kill her before it even starts!"

"Maybe she doesn't feel it," I offer, because the look on Katniss' face is neutral. Blank. Her hair is on fire, she is doused in flames. They lick at her face and neck and I'm surprised she isn't a pile of ash right then. Her tolerance is admirable. I look around the Square and my eyes find Gale on the outskirts, almost completely swallowed up in the shadows. He stares intently up at the screen and his face transforms into disbelief, his mouth slightly agape.

I whip my head back to the screen to see Katniss and Peeta raising their flaming arms into the air, their hands clasped tightly together. I'm surprised and I don't know what to make of it, so I look back to where Gale was standing, but he's gone.

* * *

Without Prim talking to me, I'm left sleeping at home and being completely useless. That is, until Gale dresses me up in hunting gear and drags me into the Woods with him. I'm afraid to duck under the fence, because the sign reads _Electrified 24/7_, but the rest of it is smudged with dirt so it's unreadable. On the other side of the fence, Gale taunts me and repeatedly states how lame I am and if I'm so afraid of a fence, I should just go back home and put on a pink wig with matching lipstick and heels. Determined to prove him wrong and how manly I am, I hold my breath as I duck under the fence and I'm surprised to find that it's not electrified at all.

Gale ruffles my hair and pushes my head down roughly, which I like to call Gale's Way of Showing Affection. "Not so bad, huh, squirt?" I roll my eyes as I trump my oversized boots through the woods. "Be quiet, idiot, you're scaring off all the game." He shoves a bow in my chest and I huff.

He demonstrates the proper way to shoot an arrow, and I mimic him. "Well, good, if you're planning on shooting yourself in the face." I switch the direction of my arrow and pull back the string which launches it two feet in front of me and sticks straight up in the dirt. Gale looks at me in disbelief and with a shake of his head, he says disapprovingly, "Posy could shoot better than you."

Next he moves on and shows me how to hit right where you want to. He draws a target on the side of a tree, and I line up the arrow with the bulls eye, squinting one eye shut and take a deep breath as a draw the arrow back. Letting out my breath slowly, I let go of the string and I miss it by five feet. I look back to see Gale's reaction but just see him passing a hand over his face. "You're hopeless," is all he says and takes the bow from me. The intense focusing that hunting requires takes the worry of Prim and the Games off of my shoulders, even if it is just for a little while.

Stalking a scurry rustling the leaves from behind a tree, Gale quietly releases his grip on the string and his arrow goes flying straight into the rabbit's heart. I can feel my stomach grumbling but he said I can't eat until I kill something. Walking around the woods noisily, I can't find any animals. Spotting a mud pit, I see a worm trying to wriggle its way down into the hearth. Snatching it up between my fingers, I hold it up for Gale to see. He sighs. "That'll have to do. But you're eating it."

* * *

Today is the day that the tributes finish training; the day they release their scores to the public. Our entire district crowds the Square for mandatory viewing as faces flash across the screen with district numbers and scores. The high numbers coming from the Career districts don't surprise me and the low numbers from the poorer ones are the same as every year. What catches me off guard is when Katniss' face appears on the screen. 11. I gasp at the same time as others sound throughout the crowd. Then the screen goes black with a soundly _plip_. The crowd murmurs to one another and others are still in shock.

11 is the highest score you can get in training, and Katniss was the only one to get it. Not one of the Careers got a score that high. Nobody's gotten that kind of score in years. The Careers don't like being showed up, and I know that since it was especially a score that a tribute from the dirtiest, poorest, most starving district got, they'll have their eyes set on her. They'll make sure they're the ones to kill her, and as Prim buries her face in my shoulder, I know. The odds are not in her favor.


	4. Traitor

The next day, Prim and her mother along with my family have pushed our ways to the front of the square, where we sit on dusty wooden crates. Prim is clutching onto her mother's hand for support and I'm sitting uselessly on my crate a few feet away. You can see how things are changing her because of her sister being tossed onto the game board like just a pawn in a game of chess. She's more independent and she's maturing a whole lot in the mental sense. She knows what exactly goes on; some things most of us don't know. She's smart, smarter than the rest of us and to be honest, it's kind of scary the way she glowers at me when I say something or mention Katniss' way of things. I try to comfort her, but she doesn't need me anymore.

That is, not until the Games start. Not until she grabs my hand like it's her last dying breath as the Capitol Anthem ends and the screen cuts to a wide-shot view of the tributes standing still as statues on their discs as the countdown to the beginning of the bloodbath ensues.

_10_

_9_

_8_

The screen cuts to Katniss' face for a moment, and I see fear as she finds Peeta's face and looks at him desperately. We don't see his response but it must have been bad, because now she's confused.

_3_

_2_

_1_

The gong sounds, signaling the beginning of the Hunger Games. She stands still on her disc for more than necessary and my heart jumps for her when I realize that this could be the end for her. Right then, right there, just that temporarily stunning movement from her could bring her to the end. But even I thought she would have lasted at least until the last ten.

Finally, she's running, dashing to the cornucopia and scooping up a backpack. Shots of the blonde, bulkier tribute from District 2 slicing the head off a smaller tribute brings my teeth digging into my lip. It's horrible how they make us watch, and it's even more disgusting how they make us _participate_. I count about five cannons and my eyes keep darting around the screen to find Katniss' braid, to see her still alive.

Just then, a throwing knife zooms right at Katniss and if she hadn't held up her neon orange backpack in just the right time, it would have landed dead center in the middle of her forehead. Prim's hand grips mine so tightly, I feel numb and I make a mental note later to tell her to cut her fingernails. Gulping, I watch as Katniss dives out of the way of more throwing weapons, rolling across the ground right in the nick of time. Then she's disappearing into the woods and I'm thankful that she's made it the first night with the woods at her advantage.

* * *

The rest of the night is uneventful for District 12. Katniss seemed to be lying low, or high, really. In a tree. Useless shots of the Careers tripping over fallen branches and falling into mud patches fill the screen and my eyes droop. Prim's grip on my hand is looser now, but still firm. I'm sure I hear her stomach grumble as I pry my hand out of hers. I shake her shoulder lightly to get her attention.

"You're hungry." I say, and she shakes her head. "Not fooling me," I laugh softly. Laughing during the Games is never appropriate unless you live in the Capitol, so I make sure to keep my voice low.

"Just a little bit," she admits and I stand up.

I'm not hungry myself, what with all of the blood and gore taking away my appetite. But I know I've got a few coins in my pocket I'd collected around the Seam and I have no problem buying Prim dinner with it. This whole thing has been the hardest on her especially. The Mellarks have resigned to the fact that their son is most likely going to die in that arena, and Mrs. Everdeen has always been too depressed to really care. Nursing and Prim, barely surviving. That's all she does.

Greasy Sae is seated behind her steaming pot of God-Knows-What soup in her flimsy stall in the Hob, her eyes glued to the screen until I'm standing in front of her. Pointing to the pot, I say, "What you got tonight, Sae?"

She grins that toothy grin of rotted teeth and gaps. Lifting the lid, the steam rises up and hits me in the face. The pungent smell that fills my nose is obvious before she presents it by name. "Wild dog stew. Yer br'ther brought me dis her dog dis mornin' to make dis her stew."

Her weird accent that might just be from her rotting teeth or old age is absolutely familiar and normal to me. "I'll take a bowl of it." I say, fishing a few coins out of my pocket and handing them over to her. Normally Gale gives me something to trade for the food at the Hob, but things have been kind of slow in that ballpark and these coins seemed interesting enough for trade purposes.

Taking my steaming bowl of stew to Prim, I hand her a fork and don't tell her what's in it. I know that she doesn't stop by the Hob often, because the Black Market isn't safe for her to go around on her own, and it isn't like her mother ever ventures outside of her home save for now. What with Katniss being gone, though, Gale has been forced to hunt double time for both of our families. Sometimes he doesn't come home until an hour before he's due to the Mines, and other times he doesn't sleep at all.

I watch her look unsurely into the stew with a wrinkle of her nose. I shake my head at her. "It's good; try it." I take the fork and poke it into a small piece of meat and choke it down for her. It's good if you're _starving._

"What _is_ it?" she asks as she takes the fork from me and puts a chunk of dog meat into her mouth. She chews it down, and it takes a while with it being so chewy and bitter. But it's food, and we're lucky to have even this.

"Wild dog stew." I say as she swallows. She looks like she's about to faint from eating a pet-worthy animal, but her stomach is growling for more, and she rushes to satisfy it, almost slopping the entire broth down her front in the process.

* * *

I wake up to find that I have fallen asleep half sitting on my crate with my back pressed against the ground. Looking over, I see Prim cradled in her mother's arms, just gently stirring awake with the empty bowl pressed to her chest. Dawn streams in rays through the dusty clouds of morning and the Capitol Anthem plays, the entire district snapping wide awake at the sound.

Immediately, the screen cuts to the District 2 male tribute and the Careers plus Peeta shooting arrows and yelling up at Katniss in the tree. Realizing an important detail I'd skimmed over, I'm in shock and my veins are pulsing with white hot anger. Peeta; a Career! One of our own turning on us! I really had thought that after Katniss and Peeta's show with the Chariots would have led to them becoming allies, but I guess I had thought wrong. She was on her own.


End file.
